The present invention relates generally to a personalized printed postcard, mailing or output image file, and more particularly to a personalized printed postcard, mailing or output image wherein a personal message appears to be a natural element within a background.
In the advertising industry, there is a growing need for individualization/personalization of various advertising materials such as Christmas cards, mail shots and other similar mailings. Typically, in the advertising industry the personalized mailings are sent to numerous individuals within a community in a single mailing (i.e., mass mailing or batch processing). In this regard, each mailing may be associated with a specific data record within a database. Each data record is read and inserted into a base image. Accordingly, in the professional advertising sector, this creates a personalized mailer. Nonetheless, this method of personalizing the mailing creates an impression that the text of the personal message is computer generated and a part of a mass mailing program.
For example, German Application Publication 43 28 908 discusses a process by which an advertising message or individual text is printed on greeting cards. Although the process discussed in the German publication provides for printing individual cards and outputting image files, the personalized message may only be printed on a part of the image or in a separate box. Further, if the text of the personalized message is unacceptably long, either the text is not accepted or the text is printed outside the visually printable area. Accordingly, this process produces an image which is visually unsophisticated.
To achieve a visually sophisticated image, a complex graphics program must be utilized, such as that described in the comparison test “Mathematical Beauties”, Volume 2001, page 142 ff. The operation of such complex graphics program even with simplifying the program to rapidly generate an output image, is too difficult for lay persons to operate and does not allow the production of mass mailings with personalized messages matched to the background.
Accordingly, the object of the invention is therefore to create a process for generating an output image file in which maximum visual attractiveness is achieved and alternate features are unincorporatable with the output to increase the attractiveness of the outputted image may be processed automatically. A further object of the invention is to create hardware and software to implement the process.